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1 Monday, 26 July 2004
2 [Status Conference]
3 [Open session]
4 [The appellants entered court]
5 --- Upon commencing at 4.18 p.m.
6 JUDGE POCAR: Good afternoon to everybody. Madam Registrar, would
7 you call the case, please.
8 THE REGISTRAR: Good afternoon, Your Honour. This is case number
9 IT-98-34-A, the Prosecutor versus Martinovic and Naletilic.
10 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.
11 May I now call for appearances. For the Prosecution.
12 MR. FARRELL: Good afternoon, Your Honour. Appearing for the
13 Prosecution is Norman Farrell, Ms. Marie-Ursula Kind, and Ms. Susan
14 Grogan. Thank you.
15 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.
16 May I turn to the Defence. Mr. Martinovic --
17 MR. HENNESSY: Matt Hennessy here for Mr. Naletilic, along with
18 Chris Meeks.
19 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you. For Mr. Martinovic.
20 MR. PAR: [Interpretation] Good afternoon, Your Honour, I'm Zelimir
21 Par, Defence counsel for Vinko Martinovic.
22 JUDGE POCAR: I don't have the translation, but thank you. I have
23 problems with the translation.
24 THE INTERPRETER: Can you hear now the English channel? Can you
25 hear the English channel?
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1 Can you hear the English booth now? Can you hear the English
2 booth now?
3 JUDGE POCAR: I'm sorry. I hear noise in my earphone.
4 Now can you hear me? Do the interpreters hear me?
5 THE INTERPRETER: Yes, Your Honour.
6 JUDGE POCAR: Okay. Now it's fine.
7 Well, the last Status Conference in this case was held at the end
8 of March, so we almost come to the end of the 120 days which are indicated
9 by the Rules. First let me ask the appellants if they have any problem,
10 any concerns, to raise relating to the appeal, to the detention
11 conditions, and so on.
12 May I ask counsel for Mr. Martinovic.
13 MR. PAR: [Interpretation] Your Honour, we do not have anything to
14 remark in relation to Vinko Martinovic's detention, and we have no special
15 questions to raise today. Thank you.
16 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you.
17 May I ask counsel for Mr. Naletilic.
18 MR. HENNESSY: Yes, Your Honour. As to detention, we have no
19 issues to raise today.
20 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you very much.
21 Then I think we can move to the status of the case. First the
22 question concerning the additional evidence we should deal with. As to
23 the appeal of Mr. Naletilic, there's a motion that has been filed by
24 Mr. Naletilic under Rule 115. A response has come in from the Prosecution
25 and the Chamber will decide in due course on the motion.
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1 As to Mr. Martinovic's appeal, there has been a motion which has
2 been disposed of, a second motion under Rule 115 is pending and will again
3 be decided by the Bench in due course. I got just before coming here
4 another motion which unfortunately I had no time to read because I got it
5 five minutes ago, submitted by the Appellant Naletilic to present
6 additional evidence pursuant to Rule 115.
7 Well, first I would like perhaps to hear from the Prosecution if
8 they were aware of this motion or just they received it today. I have to
9 note that this motion comes very late, and as far as I can see, just
10 having a very quick look at it, no leave is asked by the appellant to
11 submit a motion so late -- I don't have now the figures exactly, but it
12 must be more or less one year after the deadline for submitting bona fide
13 motions in the case. I say more or less because I don't have the exact
14 date in mind now.
15 Well, I don't know whether the Prosecution wants to say something.
16 MR. FARRELL: Thank you, Your Honour. Yes, I noted under the
17 Rules that were in force at the time the notice of appeal was filed, the
18 Rules at that time indicated that there was 75 days. The Rules had
19 been amended at the time of the filing of the notice of appeal in this
20 case, so they were in force since that time.
21 I have had the chance to review the motion, and I have also
22 brought it to the attention of counsel for Mr. Naletilic that it might be
23 advisable that they at least seek leave under the present Rules as the
24 75-day period has passed. And as far as I can read the motion, there
25 wasn't leave sought, so I leave it for my learned colleagues, counsel for
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1 Mr. Naletilic, to indicate whether they intend to seek leave as well.
2 But, yes, I would agree with Your Honour that that is the process.
3 JUDGE POCAR: I thank you.
4 May I turn to counsel for Mr. Naletilic.
5 MR. HENNESSY: Yes, thank you, Your Honour.
6 I wanted to file the motion concerning new evidence prior to the
7 conference today. I was aware of the need to request leave. I needed to
8 confer with my co-counsel and also to get the timing of our acquisition of
9 documents. My notes at home reflected that we received them well after
10 the 75-day cut-off by the Rules in place at the time of the filing of the
11 notice of appeal. With the leave of the Court, I will file a motion for
12 leave to file this motion for additional evidence setting out specifically
13 the dates when we required them, which I now have and which I did not have
14 last week on filing the motion. I simply wanted the Prosecution to have
15 as much notice as possible as to these documents.
16 JUDGE POCAR: Yes, Mr. Hennessy. I understand that you understand
17 that leave has to be sought to submit this motion. I would suggest that
18 you submit a detailed request seeking leave. I see there are several
19 documents here submitted, and they should indicate what are the reasons
20 why this motion comes so late and couldn't come earlier, specifically to
21 the several sets of documents you are submitting. I don't think for -- it
22 is necessary that you re-file the motion. I will consider that just a
23 waste of paper. So just complement the motion by request for leave.
24 MR. HENNESSY: Yes.
25 JUDGE POCAR: I think this is an acceptable procedure.
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1 MR. HENNESSY: Yes. Thank you. And just for the Court's
2 information, all those documents were recovered at the same time and, as I
3 say, recovered after the 75-day cut-off. So I understand the Court's use
4 of the word that they're late; however, our acquisition of these documents
5 was after any former deadline for filing Rule 115 motions. And in that
6 regard we have only within the last two weeks come into possession -- I
7 say "we." Members of the Defence team have come into possession of
8 documents on the order of 1500 pages of documents which I have not
9 reviewed yet, I have not seen yet. But I simply tell the Court about this
10 at this time in anticipation of possibly filing a third motion under
11 Rule 115, that these documents, as I say, are -- we've only had them about
12 two weeks. And additionally, my understanding is we may be receiving
13 additional documents pursuant to the Prosecution's continuing obligation
14 to provide relevant materials here in the near future as well which are
15 separate from the documents we only recently acquired.
16 JUDGE POCAR: That's fine. I only want to draw your attention to
17 the Rules and the fact that to submit motions under Rule 115 with a
18 certain delay like this, you must show good reasons for doing so. So
19 please be as detailed as possible in giving those reasons.
20 Well, this, I think, takes care of the questions concerning the
21 additional evidence in this appeal for the time being. There is one other
22 matter we may briefly consider. That's the question of the protective
23 measures concerning Witness NC. We're in a public meeting, so I would not
24 of course disclose any names. I think we are in a position now to - after
25 the last filing by the Defence of Appellant Naletilic - to make a decision
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1 on that. And therefore, I think that after the recess you will receive a
2 decision on this. I think we have all the elements now to make a decision
3 on this matter unless the parties want to raise anything in this respect.
4 Mr. Meek.
5 MR. MEEK: Your Honour, I think that we've covered it in the
6 various filings. I don't think there's anything else I could add today.
7 JUDGE POCAR: That's fine.
8 Prosecution, I understand, has nothing to add to this.
9 Well, let me ask if there are any other matters that the parties
10 want to raise at this stage in this appeal. Prosecution.
11 MR. FARRELL: If I may, Your Honour. There's no matters pending
12 related to any of the issues before you.
13 I just wanted to raise one thing. I had the opportunity to
14 mention to counsel for Mr. Naletilic, but I haven't had the opportunity to
15 mention to counsel for Mr. Martinovic, that I just thought I'd inform them
16 officially that last week I was informed that there are some new documents
17 that have been placed in the Croatian state archive. I have not had the
18 chance to see them, and they aren't in the possession of the Prosecution.
19 But in light of the fact that I understand there were some additional
20 documents which were not previously in the Croatian state archive, I just
21 want to put the Defence on notice of that in case they feel it necessary
22 to do any further investigations and review the documents. I have been
23 informed that the documents relate to some of the events in Central
24 Bosnia. I don't know whether they relate to the events in Mostar, whether
25 they would even be relevant to this case, but I just thought I'd put you
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1 on notice.
2 Other than that, Your Honour, I have nothing further to add.
3 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you, Mr. Farrell.
4 Does the Defence have anything to say on this?
5 MR. PAR: [Interpretation] This is the very first information that
6 we've received about this, so we would like to express our thanks and we
7 have no comments for the time being. Thank you.
8 JUDGE POCAR: Thank you.
9 Mr. Hennessy.
10 MR. HENNESSY: Yes, Your Honour. The only thing I can imagine
11 perhaps maybe to do in the future is if the Registry resists approving an
12 investigator to review the documents for us since we're not conversant in
13 the language I'm sure the documents are in, then perhaps we'll seek court
14 intervention. But apart from that, no. And I thank the Prosecution for
15 so informing us.
16 JUDGE POCAR: Okay, fine.
17 If there are no other matters, I think we can adjourn. The Status
18 Conference stands adjourned.
19 ---Whereupon the Status Conference
20 adjourned at 4.36 p.m.
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